Arc 3: Erathis
Unifying Erathis Shortly after the mission on Behlum, ODIN used the information in Cartographer-05 and discovered the location of the Cartographer on Erathis in the dwarven country, Dirrum. The country was dealing with a civil war over Dirrum's involvement in the UEG. A dwarf clan leader named Durrus Ashback had assassinated the country's former leader, Alfor Ironside, after a disagreement over the future of the country and wrongfully assumed the throne. This led to the division of the country, one side uniting behind Clan Ashback and the other behind the loyalist Clan Ergon, led by Thad Ergon. The UEG threw its support behind Clan Ergon, who promised its support if it took over the country. At the time RSA and ODIN were formed Dirrum had already been in the thick of its civil war. The collapse of the pre-RSA interplanetary government and the growing activity of the Norisian Covenant only made the division worse. Valkyrie Team was deployed to Dirrum to find the Erathis Cartographer and help stabilize the region. The meeting point was in the Ergon-controlled mining town of Silverton, but upon arrival they discovered the town was under attack by a rebel splinter force. Valkyrie Team helped fend of the attackers and met with Thad Ergon and his military general Commander Rozin Ergon. The plan from that point was to retake the city of Shorecliff and then use a lesser known tunnel system to get inside Dirrum's capital city Hargo, where the Ashback Rebellion was operating from. Thad reiterated his promise that if the UEG helped him stabilize his country and install him as the leader, Dirrum would rejoin the UEG and offer its support. Retaking Shorecliff The city of Shorecliff is built into a coastal cliff along the edge of Dirrum's massive, country-spanning plateau. Ashback rebels had set up force field preventing aerial insertion into the city, so the only access points were the city's port docks or the gates at the top of the cliff. Valkyrie Team was deployed on the docks, along with a strike team led by Special Agent Jeff Aldefer and the UEG strike team Argo. Each team was assigned a tower to take down that housed a shield generator. Valkyrie Team met opposition at the tower: Duran and Dorin Bloodhammer, the twin sons of Clan Leader Berma Bloodhammer who had chosen to support Durrus Ashback. Rose killed Duran as the twins tried to escape, leaving Dorin alive. Strike Team Argo handled their tower and met Valkyrie Team at the beach, where the Vici shuttled them to the first tower, where Jeff's team was pinned down by rebels. One of Strike Team Argo's members, Tessa Rotham, fell out of the ship as it came under fire and decided to go on foot so the others could get to the tower faster. Argo and Valkyrie handily took down the rebels around the first tower, but once the shield went down and the battle was over it was discovered that Dorin had kidnapped Jeff and Tessa on his way out of the city. After the defeat at Shorecliff, Dorin took his two captives to Hargo to offer them up to Durrus Ashback as an apology for losing the city. Durrus took Jeff, Tessa, and Dorin as his own captives at the direction of a jalek named Ulv Jeger. The rebellion was being supported by the Norisian Covenant, and Ulv was there to help it destabilize the planet and also find the members of Valkyrie Team. Taking Control of Hargo With Shorecliff retaken, the next goal was to depose Durrus Ashback and take control of Hargo. The main force of Clan Ergon was to head to Hargo's north entrance and cause a distraction so Valkyrie Team could enter the city through the Ironside Tunnels with little to no opposition. Valkyrie Team entered the tunnels on a three day journey to the eastern district of Hargo, called Oldtown. In these tunnels they met an older dwarf woman named Belinda, who they discovered was a Norisian Covenant deserter and had much of the same abilities as the four of them. Belinda decided to help the group, and led them around a goblin colony and inadvertently to an abandoned cliff dwelling. At this cliff dwelling, the group met Thedred, the god of tempest and the sea, who told them of the trouble coming for gods and mortals alike. He promised to help them in whatever way he could without directly interfering, and said that many other gods would be doing the same. Thedred pointed them in the direction of the Erathis Cartographer, Cartographer-04, which was in this cliff dwelling in a cave just behind an old chapel. Cartographer-04 wasn't working properly, but they managed to activate it and make a copy of the map data with a device from Eloy Vasin, the Vici's science officer. Valkyrie Team and Belinda then traveled the rest of the way through the tunnels and into the Oldtown district of Hargo. The city was on lockdown because of the siege, so most of its citizens were in their homes and businesses were shuttered up. The group ran into a young dwarf named Cecil Streetwise, who agreed to help them traverse the city and get to the Central district, a district made of underwater domes built at the bottom of Lake Hargo. They made it through Oldtown and into Central, where the entered the central dome and the spire where Durrus was holed up in. There was little opposition getting into the throne room, and it turned out to be a trap set by Ulv Jeger, and a fight ensued that included Belinda, Cecil, and Dorin and Durrus under a charm spell from Ulv. It was a tough fight and Ulv ended up fleeing. Both Belinda and Cecil suffered nearly fatal wounds before Rose tapped into a latent well of power inside herself to heal them. Felicity called for support to take Durrus and Dorin to receive medical attention for their wounds. Before he had vanished, Ulv tossed a magic key and two communicators with addresses on them to Findall. Each communicator linked to the locations of Jeff and Tessa somewhere inside the Central district, and Felicity made a copy of the key so they could try and save both of them. Ulv had rigged some kind of explosive device to the top of a residential dome where Tessa was being held, and the judicial dome where Jeff was being held, but had also created an illusion making it seem like the two were switched. Rose and Sebastian took the magic key to go save who they thought was Tessa at the time, and Findall and Felicity took the copy to go save who they thought was Jeff. Rose and Sebastian easily rescued Jeff, but Findall and Felicity couldn't get past the door because the copied key didn't work with the access door to the residential dome. Felicity cast blink to get into the dome, and managed to find Tessa. Before she could escape, the two explosives ripped holes in the top of the domes and both domes began to flood. Felicity and Findall tried valiantly to try and save Tessa, and Felicity even tried to seal a hole Findall had made in the door instead of saving herself. Something happened with Felicity, akin to a fight or flight response or a suppressed sneeze, and the spell she was casting became blink and she found herself standing with Findall and the group on the other side of the door with only one leg, but Tessa was still in the flooding dome. Tessa along with hundreds of Hargo residents were killed as the two domes collapsed and filled with water. Aftermath The group returned to the spire to reunite with Captain Noora Shepard and Clan Leader Thad Ergon. Strike Team Argo was there as well, and it was clear they had heard about Tessa already and were dealing with her being killed. In the chaos of Hargo citizens and soldiers from all sides, Warrant Officer Kevin Oristin had a heated exchange with Belinda, who he recognized from his days in the Norisian Covenant before he also defected. Belinda was then arrested to be transported back to Victoria on the Vici. The magic was unstable when Felicity had inadvertently saved herself, and she found herself without most of her left leg. Back on the Vici, Dr. Enae showed her some designs of artificial limbs, which Felicity requested to be colored crimson red in honor of Tessa. Felicity and the group found it hard to cope with the loss of Tessa Rotham and the many innocent victims of the Hargo Massacre. Tessa had been engaged to one of their friends, the Vici's pilot Ellie Riktor, and this loss was felt hard. Rose tried to comfort Ellie, who was in shock sitting outside of the door Tessa couldn't get through, but it's unclear what kind of effect the loss will have on Ellie. Findall took the time to find Cecil and talk him into joining the Vici crew, but it's unclear how the trauma of seeing the Hargo Massacre will effect him in the future as he joins the crew. Also while walking about, Sebastian ran into the leader of Strike Team Argo, Leander Herdin, who he followed and witnessed Leander talking with a jalek inquisitor in a back alley.